Resistive type memory has “0” and “1” logic states that are determined by a resistance difference of the memory rather than conventional charges stored in capacitors. Currently, there are several known resistive type memories: for example, magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) and phase change random access memory (PRAM). More recently, memory cells formed by nanotubes also provide a resist type of memory. MRAM is a type of non-volatile memory that uses magnetism rather than charge stored in capacitors to store data (e.g., both DRAM and FRAM are capacitor-type memories). Conventional MRAM cells are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/907,977, entitled “Magnetic Random Access Memory Device,” by Jhon Jhy Liaw, and are herein incorporated by reference.
Conventional resistive memory cells have several limitations. One limitation is that of speed in reading data from the cells. Currently, logic circuits are operating at frequencies in the GHz ranges. However, conventional resistive memory cell devices are constrained to operate at much slower rates, causing a significant performance gap between the logic and the memory. This performance gap results in a suboptimal performance of the logic circuits because supporting resistive memory devices cannot provide data and instructions fast enough. Thus, this results in a bottleneck effect at the resistive memory devices, particularly in System on Chip (SoC) designs, which combine memory with logic circuitry on a chip. It would therefore be desirable to improve the speed of data access in resistive memory devices.